Adventures in potty training

Warning: this blog entry is not for the faint of heart (i.e. has words like "poopy" and "pee" which might gross you out).

The most amazing thing happened yesterday. As background, ever since Sebastian was born we've had problems having Gabi fall asleep on her own (she's been a darling otherwise so I really can't complain about this). So for nap time (which goes off without a hitch at day care but is a herculean task at home) I went to the guest bedroom with her so that Jose could stay with the baby in our bedroom (otherwise the baby can wake up Gabi when he cries). So Gabi and I are lying in bed and she's giving me the HARDEST time going to sleep -- she's talking to me, she's getting up to close the windows and the door and whatnot, she's moving pillows around, you know, those of you who are parents know they will do a thousand things when they don't want to go to sleep.

After like half an hour she says "mommy I have to go potty" and I said "let's go potty after nap nap" (mom speak) and she's like "no no mommy I have to go potty" so after a thousand times of hearing this I said FINE, GO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT I'M STAYING HERE SLEEPING! I actually doze off (I was so freaking tired because both babies had been awake since 5:45 am when Jose went to play golf) and about 10 minutes later Gabi comes holding a small piece of something in her hand that looks like playdoh and she asks me "mommy what is this". I said it's trash throw it away, and she says I can't I need help. I'm like she needs help throwing trash away what is that about? So she goes come mommy at which point I follow her into the bathroom to find that there was a big piece of poop INSIDE the toilet!!!! So SOMEHOW (don't ask me how, I think God was in my house yesterday babysitting for a while) this series of events occurred: she went to the bathroom, she took off her own diaper, she used the stool to get up on the ADULT SIZE toilet, she sat there and waited and waited and waited until she actually POOPED, at which point (GROSS ALERT) she wipes with her hands because she couldn't understand what had come out of her body and was sitting there inside the toilet, and came to me to ask me what it was.

After getting over my initial shock, I celebrated like there's no tomorrow (quietly so as not to wake up the baby), I washed her hands (OK I admit this slipped my mind until way later), wiped her butt and told her how proud I was of her (she really couldn't believe it herself). After that we came over to tell Daddy who was also in shock (but more so by the fact that I left my 2.5 year old unsupervised in the bathroom by herself) and hi-fived her (which made her even prouder). After this whole ordeal she finally decided she was ready for a nap and slept for two hours.

Afterwards we went to Target, got her big girl underwear (Dora and George), the "donut" for the toilet so that she doesn't fall down inside the toilet and made a progress tracking chart with one big sticker placed on Sunday! Of course she peed in the George underwear a few hours later, but after my little girl has AMAZED the hell out of me by once again asserting her independence, I believe we are on our way to the crazily painful time called POTTY TRAINING. Wish me luck! :)